Visibly anxious students protesting in the streets of Kampala after the administration of Kampala University announces they will not graduate this week. | File photo.

The Principal of Kampala University College says he is in talks with collaborative universities in the region to graduate the over 300 South Sudanese students rejected by the institution’s main branch in Kampala.

In June, the Vice Chancellor of Kampala University Professor Badru Dungu Kateregga said he could not graduate the South Sudanese students, citing illegitimacy of the Juba branch.

The students then lodged a court case against the vice chancellor but in a ruling last week, but the Kampala court dismissed the case due to lack of evidence.

Speaking to Eye Radio on Sunday, the Principal of the Juba branch Faisal Juuko, said he is seeking academic cooperation with several universities with similar curricula, including the Uganda-based Nkumba University, Victoria University Kampala and Hope University in Somalia – to graduate the stranded students.

“We have started to intensify the registration process … so that we can be awarded a license to operate like any other institution of higher learning in the Republic of South Sudan and as we wait for that process,” he said.

“We are also looking for alternatives and so we have been in talks with Nkumba University, we have talked with Victoria University and Hope University in Somalia which also shares a similar curriculum with us.”

“So we are in talks with those ones and we are point to enter into academic cooperation with us so we are trying to exhaust every possible way to help our students.”